Sharh Hadith Ibn Abbas fi al-Faraid
- Author died
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Sharh Hadith Ibn Abbas fi al-Faraid (Explanation of the Hadith of Ibn Abbas on Inheritance) is a specialized legal and hadith treatise by the Saudi jurist Abd al-Muhsin bin Muhammad al-Munif, dedicated to analyzing the foundational prophetic narration concerning Islamic inheritance law.
Purpose and Scope
The work is an analytical commentary on the prophetic hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Abbas: ألحقوا الفرائض بأهلها فما بقي فهو لأولى رجل ذكر ("Give the designated shares of inheritance to those entitled to them, and whatever remains is for the closest male relative"), along with its variant recorded in Sahih Muslim: اقسموا المال بين أهل الفرائض على كتاب الله فما تركت الفرائض فلأولى رجل ذكر .
The author was motivated by the comprehensive nature of this tradition, noted by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali in his introduction to Jami al-Ulum wa-l-Hikam as encapsulating the foundational rules of inheritance law (faraid). Al-Munif sought to bring together the scattered rulings and discussions regarding the hadith from works of hadith scholars, jurists, and inheritance specialists into a single unified study, addressing both its transmission (riwayah) and its legal comprehension (dirayah), as well as explaining the scholarly wisdom behind qualifying the word "man" (rajul) with "male" (dhakar).
Structure and Methodology
The book is arranged into an introduction, five core chapters (mabahith), and a conclusion:
- Introduction (Tamhid): Covers the linguistic and technical definitions of faraid, the importance of the science of inheritance in the Quran and the Sunnah, and the divisions of inheritance into designated shares (fard) and agnatic residuary entitlement (tasib).
- Chapter One: Details the transmitted wordings of the hadith and their authentication (takhrij).
- Chapter Two: Explains the lexical definitions and specific meanings of the vocabulary used in the text.
- Chapter Three: Elucidates the overall legal meaning and implications of the hadith.
- Chapter Four: Examines the legal and linguistic wisdom behind specifying the heir as male alongside the term man.
- Chapter Five: Gathers the legal rulings derived from the hadith across three sections: rulings agreed upon among the four Sunni legal schools; preferred legal positions (al-rajih), presenting opposing scholarly views, their arguments, and rebuttals; and non-preferred positions (al-marjuh).
In his methodology, al-Munif gathered material primarily from authoritative classical sources, generally prioritizing the earliest available references, and cited the scholars who documented consensus when addressing agreed-upon rulings. The conclusion synthesizes the principal findings regarding the linguistic roots of faraid, the divine division of estates in three Quranic verses, and the legal distribution of the estate to fixed-share heirs first, followed by the closest agnate.
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